Amancio Ortega has the sky won. The man, born to perform charitable works, has given Caritas Spain 8% of the total budget of the year, almost what he needs for employment programs. Ortega interprets in his own way the phrase of Jesus of Nazareth, the founder of Christians: “Let your left hand not know what the right does.” It is possible to use the left hand with a handful of 20 million – with a fortune of EUR 40 billion – and bribe the guarantor of the door of the Jehoshaphat camp, to use the right to tighten the neck of thousands of farmed and raised people.

Say Inditex, the empire created by Amancio Ortega, is to name Zara, Zara Home, Massimo Dutti, Pull & Bear, Bershka, Oysho, Kiddy's Class, Uterqüe, Stradivarius... Inditex has mobilized EUR 12,527 million in revenue in 2010, EUR 1,832 million in profits, EUR 5,527 million in shops worldwide, EUR 103,201 workers. World leader in clothing.

Inditex marks the trend. Summarizing the consumption patterns of many young people, “Zara generaldia” is heard. Your business model is taught to all young people who want to be entrepreneurs in the world. So when Inditex President Pablo Isla calls on journalists to present the results of the year, how crazy will he dare to ask uncomfortable questions to one of the most powerful men in the world? Unless you're a young foreign reporter...

“I come from French television and, if you don’t mind, I have some questions to ask. Inditex is a world leader in the costume world and famous for its commitment to the defense of the environment, decent wages and child labor. Can you confirm that there are no children working for Inditex?” Pablo Isla: “I can say that our ethical code rejects child labour. And from the moment we detect this to some supplier, I guarantee that we act with the utmost rigor.”

The journalist did not seem satisfied. When he asks again, the rest of the columns look at him with astonishment. “We have received a document that surely you too have, in which it is explained that children from 14 to 16 are working for you. We would like to know why boys and girls are taking care of Inditex, not taking care of them, because children are cheaper...”. Pablo Isla: “First of all, I find your question terribly insulting...” This is not a normal press conference.

The young journalist continues again, who has documents showing that Inditex knows all that well, that an audit carried out in Delhi in 2009 explained that minimum wages are not respected and that children are used at work and that, however, suppliers continue to operate for the company. “Therefore, we want to know: when it comes to lowering costs, how far can it be reached?”

Fashion subjunctions

You have to see, on the Internet, subtitled in Spanish, the documentary Toxic Fringues (Poisonous Parpail) that the second French public chain issued last May in the Cash Investigation program. The whole press conference appears there.

The Cash Investigation team received confidential information a few months ago. This is an audit of the working conditions of the product production companies for Indian Inditex, carried out by the company itself: The Indian Inditex’s Suplly Chain, Inditex’s supplier chain in India. This document reveals one of the hidden keys to the success of Zara and other cheap clothing stores, the hidden cost of suppliers.

The document reveals the terrible consequences: 76.4% of suppliers do not respect minimum wages, but worse still, a quarter of manufacturers have children in their workshops.

Inditex itself has classified A to D suppliers from Delhi who meet A-worthy requirements, who use children at work D. In 2009, of the 24 suppliers in Delhi, they were all in D. But in addition, these 24 big companies have over 2,000 subcontractors, operating all over Delhi as a spidernet.

There are also videos among the mature materials of the French TV team on a USB, in which the inspectors hired by Inditex visit some of these workshops. Installations full of risks, serious hygiene problems, small places of suffocating work...

But even harder: in the images, sleeping children appear at the feet of sewing machines. Where do the slaves live? How many years are under 16, maybe under 14? The Inspectorate has caught you by surprise, but they are noted. Journalist's words: “We’re talking about the world’s largest textile company, how did it get there?”

It offers the information in another internal document of Inditex. The TF2 team has shown in the documentary that, if a company does not meet the minimum wages, on the scale that Inditex has for the valuation of suppliers from all over the world, it is sanctioned with 76 points if the minor uses clandestine subcontractors, 76 points, but only 2 if the supplier is doing clandestine subcontracting. The blacksmiths of the children who appear in the video will only be punished with 2 penalty points for each of them.

In Madrid, Pablo Isla promised the TF2 team to give explanations in Paris. The documentary gathers a memorable scene. From Spain, Inditex sent Felix Poza Peña, director of the Social Responsibility directorate. Not just. With him came the director of Zara France, two crisis communication experts, bodyguard... The second team that will record the work of journalists for Inditex!

Press the press. Elise Lucet, one of the stars of the French newsstands, is not so easy to be a journalist to play. Explaining that Inditex has a policy of tolerance 0, that Lucet is indelible to say that in Delhi they have control of 24 suppliers and 2,000 subcontractors...

In a few weeks, the TF2 team received an invitation from Inditex to demonstrate that its suppliers from Delhi have been honored. It's not true. In 2,000 subcontractors, they remain slaves. Inditex didn't expect the journalist to go and roll the truth to India, except to show TF2 public later.